Copwatch

Copwatch is the true story of We Copwatch, an organization whose mission is to film police activity as a non-violent form of protest and deterrent to police brutality. Around the country, a network of regular people take up cameras to bear witness to police actions and hold law enforcement to accountability. Director Camilla Hall profiles several We Copwatch members, including Kevin Moore, who filmed the arrest of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed Eric Garner’s fatal Staten Island arrest in the devastating video that has galvanized protestors and activists nationwide. And yet Orta is the only person involved in these incidents who has seen the inside of a jail cell. In her powerful directorial debut, Hall crafts an intriguing and incredibly timely profile of citizen-journalist-activists who are seeking to disrupt the ever-present challenge of police violence.

This program is in partnership with the Seventh Art Stand: Uplifting Black Voices which is a national film screening and discussion series which utilizes film to bridge communities and create new inroads for civil rights discourse. This series enters its second installment with Uplifting Black Voices Now and Then focused on the continually relevant need for films that empower African-Americans. Seventhartstand.com